1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to server-side glossary provision, and, in particular, to a system and method for appending server-side glossary definitions to transient Web content in a networked computing environment.
2. Related Art
Web browsers are popular applications for retrieving and viewing content over the World Wide Web (“Web”) and have gained wide acceptance for providing a de facto standardized user interface for presenting various forms of information. Operationally, Web browsers retrieve Web content through a client-server dialogue consisting of request-response exchanges.
Web content is typically composed of individual Web pages written in a tag-delimited page description language, such as the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or equivalents. Each Web page can include hyperlinks identifying additional content for retrieval through embedded Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) links. Selecting a hyperlink via the Web browser triggers a server request for additional Web content.
Web content adheres to no prescribed form. However, preferred style conventions generally specify using hyperlinks to define unfamiliar terms appearing in Web content reference linked definitions. Such use of definitional hyperlinks is analogous to the printed document convention of using footnotes or endnotes. Definitional hyperlinks can aid comprehension of Web content by clarifying cryptic terms and explaining technical jargon, such as often found with system performance metrics and other arcane utilities and applications. As well, definitional hyperlinks can assist in providing Web content internationalization and localization, and generalized and specialized vocabulary for targeted audiences.
Presently, definitional hyperlinks are embedded directly into Web content by their authors. This client-side approach has several drawbacks. In the usual case, these definitions are not normalized to other definitions used in related Web content originating from other sources. As well, embedded definitional hyperlinks require a priori knowledge of those terms in the Web content that may require further explanation. The definitions provided, though, reflect the authors' biases and discretion, and may fail to correctly anticipate the needs of the audience.
In addition, providing meaningful embedded definitional hyperlinks requires maintaining the currency of the information provided. Definitions included directly into Web pages can become out-of-date over time. Similarly, definitions provided remotely through hyperlinks require periodic synchronization between each Web page and the definitional resources to ensure currency and to avoid broken hyperlinks. Often, maintaining definitional hyperlinks, either as included content or indirectly as linked content, can complicate revising definitions due to the multiple locations at which the various definitional components are stored.
In the prior art, there are currently two widely-used client-side approaches to providing definitional hyperlinks within Web content. The first approach, mentioned above, involves embedding hyperlinks into static Web pages referencing glossary definitions either directly as included Web content or indirectly through URI links. At each client, the glossary definitions appear in the Web browser as pop-up dialogue windows or as separate Web pages. In this approach, the server plays a passive role and any inclusion of definitional hyperlinks is left to the discretion of the Web content author. This approach suffers from the need for a priori knowledge and the requirements to maintain the currency and synchrony of Web content to origin sources. As well, Web content cannot be easily tailored to an audience knowledge level or internationalized or localized for individual markets.
In the second client-side approach, a plug-in component supplements the functionality of the Web browser to provide glossary definitions to downloaded Web content. In one variation, the author of the Web content embeds static hyperlinks into the Web content. A plug-in component downloads a glossary on to the client from a remote server to work with the plug-in component. The Web browser retrieves definitions for the downloaded glossary whenever a definitional hyperlink is selected. The use of a downloaded glossary provides a local repository of definitions and avoids the need to download individual definitions on-demand. Web browser responsiveness is therefore enhanced. Nevertheless, the downloaded glossary uses storage local to the client and requires content synchronization between the remote server from which the glossary was retrieved and the downloaded glossary local to the client.
In a further variation, the plug-in component includes a parser that evaluates each individual Web page for definable terms and retrieves each glossary definition from a remote server.
The use of a parser allows the plug-in component to provide consistent normalized definitions over a wide-range of Web content, independent of source. Definitional consistency is accordingly enhanced. However, the parser imposes a heavy processing load on the client and dramatically reduces the performance of Web content download and display. Furthermore, the parser is limited to only the vocabulary immediately available to the plug-in component and requires periodic updates to maintain currency and synchronization between the parser and the remote glossary server. As well, the form of plug-in component duplicates glossary insertion on each client downloading the same Web content.
Therefore, there is a need for a server-side approach to appending definitions into downloaded Web content without requiring a priori knowledge of content definitional considerations or modifications to client-side Web browser functionality. Preferably, such an approach would maintain glossaries off-line from clients and provide opportunities for staging definitionally-processed Web content in intermediate caches. As well, such an approach would advantageously utilize superior server processor resources and avoid duplicative insertions of glossary definitions in Web content downloaded by multiple clients.
There is a further need for an approach to providing glossary definitions in downloaded Web content using server-based glossaries and rule sets. Preferably, such an approach would provide an opportunity for localization, internationalization, generalization, and specialization of definitions available through server-embedded hyperlinks. Moreover, such an approach would provide a transparent solution to including definitional hyperlinks to clients visually indistinguishable across Web browser environments.